Patient comfort and health in a hyperbaric chamber depends, among other factors, on good management of the chamber gas quality and pressure. Human occupancy in a pressure vessel alters the gas environment and requires constant monitoring to correct any rise in carbon dioxide levels or other unwanted gases. In the past this required an attendant monitoring the chamber to adjust an array of regulators and valves while observing meters to provide a flow of fresh gas into the chamber without a pressure drop. Despite operator diligence the addition or discharge of gas into a hyperbaric chamber often changes the chamber pressure. The present invention makes it easier to add fresh gas into a hyperbaric chamber while maintaining a measurable steady gas pressure in the chamber environment.
Breathable gas pressure regulators often use a diaphragm held between a sealed housing on one side, the gas conduit side, and a perforated housing on the other side, the ambient air pressure side. Any relative increase or decrease in gas pressure in the gas conduit side causes the diaphragm to deflect and pull or push a connected lever to open a spring loaded vent valve. The deflected vent valve thus delivers or vents breathable gas to or from a person through the gas conduit side. People in diverse environments such as scuba divers, aircraft pilots or hyperbaric chamber patients have used these gas regulating devices to deliver or exhaust breathing gas to or from their lungs.
This present invention takes gas regulation to a new level by using a hermetically sealed pressure vessel plenum containing an exhaust gas regulating device having sealed pressure piping means, that forms an airtight connection from a hyperbaric chamber to the atmosphere. The cavity of the sealed plenum also communicates through a valve with the hyperbaric chamber. A pressure gauge measures the gas.